Yangtze River Network News (Reporter Wang Yunqi) This place was called "the highest-standard, largest-scale, and best-preserved ancient Chinese temple site" by an expert group from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. On November 28, the "Understanding China Along the Yangtze River - A Thousand Miles of Yangtze River Journey" delegation came to the Nanjing Dabaoen Temple Ruins Museum to gain an in-depth understanding of the protection of the ruins.
It is understood that Dabaoen Temple was the first of the three major temples in Jinling during the Ming Dynasty. The most famous building in the temple is the Glazed Pagoda. The pagoda is made of colorful colored glaze and is unparalleled in its beauty. It represents the highest level of glaze firing and glaze building technology in Chinese history. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by war in the mid-19th century.
Members of the visiting group listened to the explanation of the guide at the ruins. Photo by Wang Zheng
Entering the Dabaoen Temple Ruins Museum, the museum combines ancient charm with modern style. Looking down while walking, under the transparent glass cover under your feet, you can see the stone road that has experienced thousands of years of wind and rain. Looking up and looking out, outside the glass wall, the towering Da Baoen Tower stands quietly. The underground palace ruins where a large number of national cultural relics were unearthed are right under the tower.
In the central axis ruins area, the visiting team saw a large area of ruins "exposed" outside. According to the commentator of the Nanjing Dabaoen Temple Ruins Museum, this was the site of the Tianwang Hall, and the main extant part is the rammed earth platform at the bottom. The well-preserved Ming Dynasty stone pillar foundations on the platform can clearly reflect the regulations and column network structure of the Tianwang Hall.
The ruins of rammed foundations in the Ming Dynasty. Photo by Wang Zheng
"Why are some ruins protected by glass covers and others not?" Wu Zhenhui, a member of the visiting team, asked.
Wang Xingping, honorary curator of the Nanjing Dabaoen Temple Ruins Museum, said that the Dabaoen Temple ruins are mainly earthen ruins and are very difficult to preserve. After in-depth investigation, analysis, and research on all and part of the ruins, it was finally decided to adopt different protection and display methods for the indoor, outdoor and semi-outdoor ruins. For example, for the open-air parts such as the main hall and Guanyin Hall, in-situ backfill protection was adopted and the balcony railings were partially reconstructed; for parts such as the Jialan Hall and the drainage ditch, in-situ reinforcement and covering protection were adopted; most of the main building ruins , such as the Tower Base Palace, adopted the method of original site protection and construction of protected buildings. Wang Xingping introduced that the Dabaoen Tower is a "lightweight tower-shaped protected building" built to protect the underground palace ruins.
The appearance of the Great Repayment Tower. Photo by Wang Zheng
The Da Baoen Pagoda was rebuilt above the underground palace ruins, at the original site of the Glazed Pagoda. The scale, shape and slenderness of the Dabaoen Tower are similar to the original tower, but the materials are different. The new tower does not use glazed tiles to restore the original tower style, but uses lightweight glass. "The Da Baoen Pagoda can be regarded as a tower-shaped 'protective cover' to better protect the underground palace ruins. If the Glazed Pagoda is rebuilt, the underground palace ruins are likely to be destroyed. Compared with rebuilding the Glazed Pagoda, protecting the underground palace is more important The ruins." Wang Xingping said that the Dabaoen Tower has nine floors and uses four sets of steel pipe inclined beams to span over the ruins. The overall structure is a steel structure. "The foothold of the current Dabaoen Pagoda's ground beams is located outside the original pagoda base ruins, which can not only reduce the disturbance to the ruins, but also play a role in protecting the underground palace."
This year, the Nanjing Dabaoen Temple Ruins Museum released the Dabaoen Temple Glazed Pagoda The digital restoration results allow the Glazed Tower to reappear in the digital world. Visitors can use their virtual images to enter the "Sacred Realm of Repaying Gratitude Metaverse" launched by the museum. "Although the Glazed Pagoda has been destroyed, its ruins and cultural relics are still there, and the architectural art culture and aesthetic art culture it carried are still there." Wang Xingping said, "We are also constantly exploring, hoping to combine digital technology with The historical and cultural connotations should be better integrated and promoted."
